The Elephant in The Room
by BourbonScars
Summary: The elephant in the room has been haunting Jack Sloane since that Christmas night. When Gibbs leaves her the elephant painting, she finally finds her resolve to confront him. Will Gibbs acknowledge or admit anything about what happened and his feelings about it all? Spoilers for Episode S17 E03 Going Mobile


**Title:** The Elephant in the Room

**Summary:** The elephant in the room has been haunting Jack Sloane since that Christmas night. When Gibbs leaves her the elephant painting, she finally finds her resolve to confront him. Will Gibbs acknowledge or admit anything about what happened and his feelings about it all?

All mistakes are mine, this has not been proofed.

Spoilers for Episode S17 E03 Going Mobile

**####################**

Clutching the post it note to her chest, Jack smiled and spun the chair around to look at the picture hanging on the wall. She chuckled to herself and shook her head. Finally, Gibbs acknowledged the elephant that had been in the room with them since last Christmas. Last Christmas…she stared at the elephant picture and sighed. That Christmas Eve still haunted her day and night. At night she dreamed about it, relived it, expanded on it, and created a whole fantasy world. During the day snippets of it flashed through her mind every time she saw him. Her eyes closed...His hands caressing her breasts then clutching at her hips, and his lips…God his lips. That first kiss was unforgettable. His lips so soft, so needy, devouring her with an insatiable hunger as if it was the first and last time he would ever kiss her. She involuntarily squeezed her thighs together feeling the flush of warmth between her legs.

Her eyes shot open and she shook her head trying to shake the memory from her mind, but it wouldn't leave. She thought of his lips from early today, how close they were standing to each other, how much she had wanted to kiss him, or for him to kiss her. Instead he left and she remained silent. Silent about all of it; her wants, her needs, and the fact that almost a year had passed and they still hadn't talked about any of it. She needed to talk, needed him to talk, but neither of them ever did. She'd tried once a few weeks after Christmas and he'd brushed the conversation and her off with a look.

Most people would have talked about it the morning after, but not them. She'd woken up in the bed alone, got up, dressed, and walked down stairs. Gibbs was sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and reading the paper. He looked up and tipped his head towards the kitchen. "Coffee's ready." She'd just nodded, smiled, and walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. When she sat down at the kitchen table it was just like any other time she'd stayed over having had a few drinks, except they ignored the difference, that they had made love countless times throughout the night before falling asleep with their bodies still entwined. And the truth was at that moment she didn't want to talk about it either, especially after she walked down the steps and saw his face. She knew right then that he wasn't ready to talk about it and may never be. So she kept silent while part of her begged her to ask for answers.

Leaning back in the chair she groaned, this wasn't like her to let something fester this long. Yet she knew why she hadn't pushed him to talk about it…she was afraid of the truth. Afraid he'd say it was a mistake, that it shouldn't have happened, and it couldn't happen again. Afraid that the only emotion he'd felt that night was lust and the only emotion he felt now was regret. Sitting up in the chair, she stood up and stared at the painting a moment. Folding her arms across her chest, she tried to honestly decide what the painting meant. Her first reaction had been one of rejoicing, believing he understood the truth of what the elephant in the room meant and that he was ready to talk about it. It could also mean he understood about the elephant in the room, but he still couldn't or wouldn't talk about it.

"This has to end." She grabbed her coat and practically ran out the door.

**##########**

She walked through the front door of the house and straight through the living room and kitchen to the open basement door. Stepping onto the landing she looked down to see him working on the boat.

Drill in hand, he paused. "Hey." He tipped his head at her then looked at his watch.

Her brow furrowed. "It's not too late is it?"

"No." He chuckled. "Just wondering why it took you twenty-seven minutes to finally come in."

"Phone call."

He slowly nodded accepting the lie without question.

"Where you watching me?" She knew she was caught.

His eyebrow went up at her accusing tone. "You were parked in my driveway."

Her gaze faltered as she realized how she had sounded. "Right." She walked down the steps stopping in front of the work bench.

"Beers in the cooler."

Gibbs reached over and picked up his beer from the beam beside him and took a swig.

Grabbing a beer from the cooler she leaned back against the work bench. "I love the painting. Thanks."

He nodded as he leaned back against the boat and took another glug from the beer bottle.

She nodded her head. God she'd totally lost her nerve, just like all the countless other times.

"There's left over Chinese in the fridge."

"I'm good thanks." She smiled pushing the hair back behind her ears. A nervous flirtatious habit she'd developed whenever he was around.

Accepting her presence, he turned around and placed the beer back on the beam and picked up the drill again.

"So what happen to the Rorschach print?" She was almost afraid to ask. "Death by fire?" She heard his slight chuckle.

"It's in your office closet." Turning the drill into the wood he tried to ignore the faint scent of her perfume. He normally hated perfume that heavy floral scent, but hers, hers was more earthy woodsy and he took a deep breath hoping to catch another hint of it.

"I'm impressed with your self-restraint now that I know how much you disliked it." She stared at the back of his head as he worked on the boat. "But then abstract art not really your thing."

"No." He felt the hairs on the back of his neck go up. He knew she had something to say, something she'd been trying to say for months. The elephant in the room. She always seemed right on the edge of talking about it, but then stopped, out of fear, regret, or countless other emotions he was never sure why and part of him was afraid to know the answer. Today, in her office, she'd been so close to asking, so close to demanding answers from him, but yet again, she'd changed the subject. Trying to maintain the steadiness in his voice he asked. "You still have something on your mind Jack?"

She turned around fiddling with a tool on the work bench as she tried to gather up her courage to at least hint at the subject she wanted to talk about. "Just wondering if there's some reason you gave me the picture." She held her breath waiting to see if he would respond with more than a grunt or snarky comment.

"You know the reason." He inhaled deeply taking in her scent.

She jumped dropping the tool she was holding as she felt the words spoken almost directly in her ear. Feeling his body behind her, she gasped at the warmth he radiated. Her eyes followed the hand that suddenly appeared and she prayed that it would wrap around her and jerk her back against his body. Instead the hand grabbed a tool and disappeared. Spinning around, she was taken aback when Gibbs was still standing behind her. His steel blue eyes locked on her brown.

"Honestly." She let out the breath she'd been holding. "I'm not sure."

He shrugged.

"Right." She rolled her eyes, she knew that shrug. Knew it meant he was admitting "it" but talking about "it" wasn't an option.

The annoyance and anger that emanated from her made Gibbs take a step back, putting a little more distance between them.

"You know everyone thinks we have a thing?" She folded her arms across her chest as if it would offer her some protection from his denial.

He nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"It doesn't bother you?"

He shook his head. "Seems to bother you."

"It doesn't bother me." She scoffed. "Why would it bother me?"

He chuckled. "I don't exactly have the best reputation when it comes to women."

"No you definitely don't." She agreed.

He glanced down at the tool in his hand then took a deep breath. "Reputation is ten percent truth and a hundred percent speculation."

She couldn't help but chuckle. "Really?"

"When it comes to someone's love life, yeah." He leaned back against the work bench next to her. "No one knows what really happens when two people are alone except those two people." He sighed as he thought about his ex-wives. "And rarely do those two people have the same story to tell. The reason and emotion behind the exchange usual doesn't match."

"You sound like you're talking about suspects not two people in love." She surprised herself by saying the word and she almost expected him to cringe or move away from her when he heard it.

He shrugged. "It can easily apply to both."

"That's a pretty sad pessimistic commentary on love."

He glanced over at her catching the gaze of the brown eyes momentarily before looking back at the tool in his hand. "No because sometimes, everything aligns and the stories match. Two people share the same experience, for all the same reasons and with all the same emotions."

"And it's those moments when people fall in love." She let her arms fall from her chest and turned leaning her hip against the work bench as she looked at him.

He nodded.

"And Christmas?" She felt her heart beating out of her chest as she asked. "What has that?"

He shrugged. "We haven't heard both stories yet."

"Think we ever will?"

He cleared his throat as the emotion settled in. "It takes a lot of courage and strength to tell those stories, especially when you don't know if they match."

"Fear is a powerful emotion." She knew that all too well. Fear was the main reason she hadn't pushed him to talk about Christmas…fear of exactly what he explained…that their stories, their reasons and emotions for that night wouldn't match. "But when we let fear rule our decisions we can miss out on something or someone that could be the best thing in our life."

"Yeah." He tossed the tool back onto the work bench.

She let her hand brush against Gibbs, hooking two of her fingers into his. "I'm tired of letting fear stop me from telling my side of the story." She felt his fingers squeeze hers. "And if you can't tell yours that is okay." Taking a deep breath, she said everything she had wanted to say for months. "I wanted you since almost the day we met and that night, when I saw the look in your eyes, the blatant lust you had for me, there was nothing that could have stopped me from giving in. I just let myself surrender to the want, the need, the desire, and the longing I'd bottled up for so long and it was…amazing." She pressed her hand to his and they interlocked their fingers. "Each time you took me was more amazing than the time before. And each time I told myself; maybe just maybe, this was going to be more than one night." She fought back the emotion. "Even when I knew it wasn't, because that first kiss told me everything I needed to know."

He actually looked over at her with a furrowed brow.

"You kissed me like it was the first and last time you would kiss me. So I knew from the start…" She shrugged. "But I didn't care, or more accurately I didn't let myself care, because I wanted you and at that moment that was all that mattered." The tears were pooling in her eyes. "That's not really the truth." She blew out a long breath as she rolled her eyes. "I had that fantasy that women do. Once he's with me, he'll realize how much he wants me and only me." She chuckled through the swelling tears. "But I woke up alone and when I came down stairs that next morning, I knew….I knew it wasn't going to be throw me on the kitchen table and start all over again or that we were now in some relationship that would continue, but I didn't know where we went from there." She cleared her throat again biting back the emotion. "And although part of me let it go another part of me couldn't. You, that night, haunted me in my dreams, whenever I saw you, at night when I was alone and naked in my bed."

His eyebrow went up.

"Oh I have come so many times touching myself wishing it was you." The fantasies flashed through her mind and his hand clenched hers tighter. She shook her head trying to dispel the images. "And that want spilled over to flirting, the little touches, the closeness, hoping maybe it would be just enough to make you want me again…although part of me hoped it wouldn't."

He turned towards her mirroring her position as he brought their joined hands to his chest. "Why?"

"Because I…" She let the fear make her resolve falter and she didn't say what she truly wanted to say. "I needed more than just another night with you."

"That's not what you were going to say." He slid closer clutching their joined hands tighter to his chest.

"You already know what I was going to say." She didn't want to say it, didn't want to make that final admission when she was still so unsure.

He slid closer still, their bodies almost touching as he let go of her hand and cupped her cheek. "I wanna hear it."

"Why?" They were so close she could feel his breath on her lips as she spoke.

"Because I want you." His thumb brushed across her bottom lip. "And I love you, but I can't until I kn-"

"I love you." She sighed breathlessly as his lips captured hers saying more than any words could say. It was a kiss that said I love you, I need you, and I will never let you go now that I know. It said this is the first of endless kisses I will shower upon you, that this was the beginning and there was no end in sight. It was a kiss that made the world come crashing in around her.

Before she could even prepare herself, Gibbs' hands grabbed her ass and jerked her upward. Instinctively she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. When her back made contact with the hull of the boat, his hands were on her hips and his head dipped down. She threw her head back as he attacked her throat. Her eyes closed as he kissed his way to her neck then bit down on the tender flesh. "God yes." Her mouth fell open as he feasted on her neck and throat like a starving man. She wanted more, her hand left his neck and made their way between them tugging open his belt then the button on his jeans.

Gibbs' hands clawed their way up her legs and under her dress ready to rip the panties from her body, instead his hands met bare skin and he growled as he tore himself from her throat. His dilated blue eyes met brown.

"They were wet after I saw the picture and started thinking about what it might mean, so I took them off."

His eyes narrowed hearing the arrogant cockiness in her tone.

She suddenly gasped for breathe, her eyes went wide then closed as her hands knotted in the sweatshirt covering his chest. "Oh fuck yes."

Feeling how wet she was before he even touched her he shoved two fingers inside her. "I love how wet you get before I even touch you." He pushed his fingers deep inside her and hooked them upward causing her body to shake. "Were you soaking wet earlier today when we were in your office?"

"Yes." She managed to stammer out as he started working his fingers in and out of her. "Dripping wet."

"You wanted me to kiss you." He rubbed his thumb against her clit and watched as all she could manage to do was nod. "God I wanted to kiss you, wanted to kiss you then bend you over the desk and take you."

She bit her lip as she felt the need threaten. Finally having his touch again after all this time, the admissions they'd made to each other, and the months of pent up sexual tension had her on edge from the minute she walked in here tonight.

He wanted her to come, wanted to see the ecstasy on her face like the first time they'd made love on Christmas. She said that night haunted her, it haunted him as well. All he could think about was about how perfectly their bodies fit together, the sounds she made as he took her over and over again, the way she clawed at his back as if trying to claw her way inside him, but most of all he saw her eyes staring up at him with all the emotion he now knew she had been struggling with. He should have recognized it, she have realize they were both experiencing the same fears, but he was to overwhelmed by his own emotion to see what was right in front of him.

His thumb started making quick circles around her clit as he pushed his fingers deeper inside of her searching for that spot. Her body suddenly trembled in his arms and he hooked his fingers upward even more letting his fingertips palpate the spot.

Her hands clutched at the sides of his neck as she felt the warm start to spread through her body and her muscles start to tighten. Her head fell forward her forehead against his as her mouth fell open in a silent cry and her body convulsed in his arms. For the second time, the world came crashing in around her and she slumped against him as her whole body went limp.

His stayed silent, just holding her until he felt her breathing steady slightly and her body stop trembling.

She picked her head up slowly, her brown eyes looking on steely blue. Her hands slipped between their bodies and push his jeans down just far enough to let his hard cock spring free.

He bit back a groan as her finger brushed against his aching cock then disappeared.

Her hands cupped his face. "Make love to me. Show me everything you hid from me at Christmas, I want all of you." She heard the rumble of the roar deep inside his chest as he raised her up slight then slammed her down impaling her on his cock.

Her gasp seemed to fill the room as her hands dropped to his shoulders her fingertips digging into the sweatshirt and into the skin beneath. And that was all it took. He was taking her, hard and fast, his hands clutching at her hips so tightly she had no doubt she would have bruises.

He buried his head in the crook of her neck, surrounding himself in her scent, inhaling deeply he growled as he bit down on her jugular feeling the raging pulse beneath his teeth. He heard her whimpered cry, knew it was a sound of pleasure and bit down harder. He wasn't the type of man to want to leave marks, but with her he had this overwhelming need to make it clear she was his…and always would be, even after the mark faded.

Somehow her hands had move, one clutching at the back of his neck the other fisted into the silver hair on the back of his head. She pushed him hard against her, accepting the marks, needing them, wanting that visible reminder for how much he wanted her.

Nipping his way up the side of her neck, he bit at the bottom of her earlobe, before whispering everything he'd wanted to say at Christmas but was too afraid to. Words of adoration, longing, and most importantly love. Next he spoke the words of regret, repentance, and finally salvation…salvation in being given her love.

The words burrowed into her soul, her heart filling with the endless love and devotion he professed, her fingertips gouged into the side of his neck as the emotion overwhelmed her. His touch, the words, the connection between their bodies and souls, took her breath away. She tried to take a breath only to have it expelled as his fingers found her clit sending a surge of exquisite pleasure throughout her body. The added sensation was too much and she threw her head back and screamed as the orgasm tore through her.

He was right there with her, burying himself inside her and following her over the edge.

**###########**

Head on his chest she listened to the erratic beat of his heart as her fingers dance in the silver hairs covering his chest. She smiled as she felt the arm around her waist tighten and his lips place a kiss on the top of her head. "How did I never realize you had this down here?"

"Because it was in a duffle bag in the back corner."

She sighed contently. After they'd made love she was so lost in the after affects that she didn't see where he'd produced the fold out mattress from. She just remembered him leading her to it and laying her down, covering her up, then climbing in with her. "It's perfect."

He smiled to himself, only she would think a mattress on the floor of the basement was perfect. That was another reason he loved her. She could wear a designer dress as if it was all she would ever wear and then turn around and put on jeans and a t-shirt and look just as comfortable.

"Although-" She pulled her head up. "How many women have you had one this little love mattress?"

"Well you know-" He chuckled as he felt the smack to his chest. Rolling on his side, he tugged her to him. "You're the first…and last." His heart skipped a beat when she smiled at him, that gently honest smile that he loved.

"You throw this on the boat frame and sleep down here don't you?" She asked her smile turning to a grin.

"Lot of nights."

"Maybe we can get a slightly bigger mattress." Her hand caressed up his chest.

"Why's that."

"If this is going to become a regular thing, I'd like to have a little more room."

His steel blue eyes softened and his hand caressed up her back as his lips found hers.

When their lips parted her eyes were closed and she took a slow steady breath as her eyes fluttered open. "What was that for?" The kiss had been so loving and tender that it made her whole body shiver.

"For wanting to be down here." This really was as she had said before, his inner sanctum. The ex-wives never wanted to be down here, even when he actually did want them around.

"This is you, the tools, the wood-" She smirked. "The Bourbon." Her fingers played in the hairs on his chest. "I love being down here."

"Think you'll still feel that way in five or ten years?"

She pulled her head back, surprised by the longevity of his question. "I'll still feel that way in fifteen or twenty."

"We'll see." He watched as the bright angelic smile filled her face.

She knew it was his way of expressing his commitment to this, to them. "Are you still going to want to take me against the boat in ten years?"

He grinned. "Oh yeah."

"Guess that's settled." She wrapped her arm around his waist as she snuggled deeper into him.

It wasn't really, not to his liking.

Her brow furrowed as she saw the depth of though behind the blue eyes. "What is it?"

"Another elephant in the room." He took a deep breath.

"Well what do we do about that?" The words came out with more concern and trepidation than she intended. Although she thought she knew what he wanted to say, ask, however he was going to phrase it that last tiny sliver of fear latched on.

"If I'm getting a bigger mattress I need some reassurances."

"Reassurances?" Her right eyebrow went up.

"Yeah." His fingers dance across the small of her back. "Can't have you just dropping in once or twice a week."

"Really." The word came out in a breathless whisper the anticipation making her entire body hum.

He nodded as the familiar fantasy he'd had before flashed through his mind. "I wanna know I can be down here working in the middle of the night, any night…and you could walk down here to talk, to tell me to be quiet, to make love, or to just sit together in silence because you want to be close."

She swallowed the overwhelming emotion that threatened to spill out at the beautiful unconventional way he'd asked the question without asking. "Or me waking up in the bed, wanting you, needing you, and I walk down here naked because I have to have you."

The words made his fingertips claw into the small of her back. "Yeah."

"Rest assured that's going to happen a lot." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.

"Then I'll get the new mattress tonight."

Her eyes went wide and she laughed as he rolled her onto her back, his body draped over hers. Reaching up her finger traced a path down his jaw line. All the elephant's in the room had been banished, both sides of the story told in their own way, and they matched.

"One more story to tell." He said as his eyes leered down her body.

"And what story is that?"

He leaned down letting his lips caress the shell of her ear as he whispered. "I wanted to throw you down on the kitchen table and take you that morning." He heard her hungry purr.

Her fingers knotted into the hair on the back of his head and jerked his head up. When their eyes met she had a sultry smirk on her face. "Then after you make love to me here, we'll go upstairs and make that happen."

His eyebrow went up.

"And I have a few fantasies of my own I want to make happen."

His lips crashed down onto hers…and he'd fulfill every one of them, every day, every night, for the rest of his life.


End file.
